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Retired Navy Seal commander says Biden 'failed' in Russia meeting

'They can sniff out weakness,' Dave Sears tells 'Your World'

This is a rush transcript of "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on June 16, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

CHARLES PAYNE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR:  Fox on top of inflation fears growing here, as President Biden makes his way home after a high-stakes summit with Vladimir Putin over there. 

Welcome, everyone. I'm Charles Payne, in for Neil Cavuto. And this is "Your World." 

Two major stories were following this hour ,as stocks get rocked by the Fed and inflation,while the White House deals with a somewhat rocky press conference from President Biden. 

We will get to read and all of this from Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman, but first FOX team coverage for Peter Doocy in Geneva with the fallout from those Russia talks and FOX Business' Susan Li on why Fed had the investors rushing to sell today.

But we began with Peter -- Peter.

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT:  Charles, good evening from Switzerland.

Ransomware and cyberattacks were a big topic of this discussion behind closed doors with Biden and Putin today. The president says he gave Putin a list of 16 different critical infrastructure types within the United States that must not hack, basically a do-not-hack list.

But Putin tried to turn allegations of cyber mischief back on the U.S..

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  I said, well, how would you feel if ransomware took on the pipelines from your oil fields? He said it would matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY:  And now that the president and Putin are going their separate ways, I tried to figure out at that press conference what comes next with the

COVID-19 origins investigation? 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY:  You signed on to the G7 communique that said the G7 were calling on China to open up to let the investigators in. But China basically says they don't want to be interfered with anymore. So what happens now?

BIDEN:  Certain things, you don't have to explain to the people in the world. They see the results. Is China really actually trying to get to the bottom of this?

What I'm going to make an effort to do is rallying the world to work on what is going to be the physical mechanism available to detect early on the next pandemic, and have a mechanism by which we can respond to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY:  And I also had a chance to ask President Biden, who was speaking today, about how there is no substitute for face-to-face interaction while conducting international diplomacy. 

Why don't you just call President Xi in China, somebody that he talked a lot on the campaign trail about spending a lot of time with as vice president? And the president said, the two of them are not friends. It's purely business -- Charles.

PAYNE:  Peter, before I let you go, that question, by the way, let's be quite frank, President Biden seem to bristle at that, although he used it as a major campaign talking point to be elected in the first place. 

So I thought it was a great question. But you're never in the queue. I just wondered, just personally, I mean, how does it feel that you're always on the outside looking in trying to get these questions in? 

DOOCY:  It would be easier in writing a script for a show like this one, if we got -- if we knew that we were going to get a question or if we were on the list, and we could get something more formal set up. 

PAYNE:  Yes. 

DOOCY:  But, that said, President Biden, more often than not at events like this is -- he listens. And if he hears something that he wants to engage on, he does. And he gave us a couple minutes of his time there. So, thank you, if you're watching on Air Force One on the trip back to Maryland, Mr. 

President. 

(LAUGHTER)

PAYNE:  Hey, real quick, before I let you go, I just want to share that moment with the audience, so they know exactly what I'm talking about, Peter. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOOCY:  You've spoken many times about how you have spent perhaps more time with President Xi than any other world leader. 

So is there going to become a time where you might call him, old friend to old friend, and ask him to open up China to the World Health Organization investigators who are trying to get to the bottom of COVID-19? 

BIDEN:  Let's get something straight. We know each other well; we're not old friends. It's just pure business. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(CROSSTALK)

PAYNE:  Go ahead.

DOOCY:  There's tape -- and just stay tuned -- of President Biden talking about his friendship with President Xi. It's just not fresh, and so we have to cut it. But stay tuned for that. 

PAYNE:  All right. I will. And, again, I was just going to say you yourself are very diplomatic, and we appreciate everything you do. We will talk again real soon. 

(LAUGHTER)

PAYNE:  Now I want to go to Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman. He is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

And, Senator, President Biden, at this gathering, was asked about the possible infrastructure deal that, by the way, you're helping to craft. 

Here's what he had to say about that. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN:  I honestly haven't seen it.

I don't know what the details are. I know that my chief of staff thinks there's some room, that there may be a means by which to get this done. 

And I know that Schumer and Nancy have moved forward on a reconciliation provision as well. So, I'm still hoping we can put together the two bookends here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAYNE:  All right, Senator, you're one of the 10 senators taking part in this. It's bipartisan, five Republicans, five Democrats. 

What do you think? Are you hopeful from what you just heard? 

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): Well, I think that was pretty good. He didn't say no, but he also didn't say yes. 

PAYNE:  Right. 

PORTMAN:  And, look, I think it makes so much sense, Charles, to do this in a bipartisan way without taxes, because his own proposal, as you know, is a huge new package, $2.65 trillion, with $2 trillion of new taxes, particularly taxes on American businesses and American workers, which makes no sense coming out of this pandemic.

As you well know from your work on the economic side, the 2014 -- or the

2017 tax bill actually worked well to bring jobs and investment back to America and increase wages. 

So my hope is that he will be willing to work with us on a different kind of package that doesn't have taxes, but does deal with these core infrastructure challenges we have as a country. 

PAYNE:  It feels like, watching this and the back-and-forth, that, certainly the White House has come down a lot, that they are willing to give up on some of these things that everyone knows are not infrastructure.

But the sticking point seems to be fresh money, and not going into that reserve, but the fresh money, which, of course, they would have to find a way to pay for. That takes us back to higher taxes.

When you were negotiating this with your Democratic colleagues, those five Democratic colleagues, did that seem to -- it must have really resonated with them to some point, right?

PORTMAN:  Well, the five Democrats we worked with, including Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, were not interested in new taxes for infrastructure. 

They just didn't believe that was the right way to go in this case. So that was helpful. 

But the Republicans drew a red line and said, one, it has to be about core infrastructure. And, two, it has to be without raising taxes. And we can do that. That's the good news. There are pay-fors that are appropriate. 

President Biden has said he's not crazy about a couple of them. 

But there are good pay-fors, including taking money back that has already been spent with regard to COVID-19 that has not been utilized yet and using it for infrastructure. And, actually, a lot of states are quite interested in that, because they can't use the state and local money for things like roads and bridges. 

PAYNE:  Right. 

PORTMAN:  So, that's an obvious place to go. 

And then there are other places too where we can find some resources for these long-term capital expenditures, say, a bridge that's going to last for 50 years, by leveraging the federal government's ability to borrow at low interest rates.

PAYNE:  Right. 

PORTMAN:  And revolving loan programs that you're familiar with are used all the time -- all the time. Now, this could be an expansion of that for federal infrastructure projects.

So I think there's an opportunity here to move ahead and at least do this on a bipartisan basis. 

PAYNE:  Let's go back to -- I want to go back to the summit and just get your overall thoughts on what we know so far, what was said at the dueling press conferences, if you will. 

Just your initial assessment? 

PORTMAN:  Well, I was pleased to see that the president did raise some of the key issues. 

Navalny, of course, is one. But with regard to Russia's interference in Eastern Europe, I'm so glad that the Ukraine was -- that Ukraine was part of the agenda. I wish also there been more discussion about Belarus and about Georgia. Maybe we will find out more about that later. 

But it's important to have those discussions, and I'm glad that they were raised. The cybersecurity issue was raised as well, which is a huge concern right now. 

My concern, Charles, goes to the actual actions that are taken by the United States vs. that discussion or that rhetoric. And specifically with regard to Ukraine, Eastern Europe, generally, I think the United States needs to stand tall. 

And, instead, what the president and his administration has done recently is, the Biden administration allowed for the Nord Stream II gas pipeline to move forward by providing a waiver for the sanctions that had been in place. I think that's a big mistake. I know it's a terrible thing for Ukraine. 

I have spoken to President Zelensky in person about this in the last couple of weeks in Ukraine. We have also, of course, heard from other countries their concern about allowing this gas pipeline to circumvent Ukraine and to go directly to the Europeans. 

Also, it makes Europe far more dependent on Russian natural gas. And that's not a good thing either. So, my hope is that it will not just be strong rhetoric, but actually strong actions. And same with regard to Ukraine, Georgia and other countries who we ought to allow into NATO. 

They have turned to us, turned to the West, turned to democracy, and we ought to embrace them. 

PAYNE:  Yes, a lot of our allies are still scratching their head over that, particularly as we shut down fossil fuels investments in this country, including the Keystone pipeline.

PORTMAN:  Exactly. Exactly. 

PAYNE:  Senator Portman, thank you very much. Always appreciate it. 

PORTMAN:  Thanks, Charles. Great talking to you.

PAYNE:  Now I want to get to the other big story today. And that's inflation, folks, the Fed signaling that it may actually move up its own timeline on a rate hike because of inflation. 

Well, that had starts moving lower.

FOX Business' Susan Li keeping track of all of it, and she joins us now -- Susan. 

SUSAN LI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Hey, Charles, yes, one of the most consequential Federal Reserve meetings of the pandemic so far.

Wall Street was trying to figure out when the stimulus punchbowl would be taken away. Now, as expected, interest rates were kept on hold near zero this time around. The stock markets did sell off on hints that higher prices might force rates to go up sooner than anticipated. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN:  Bottlenecks, hiring difficulties and other constraints could continue to limit how quickly supply can adjust, raising the possibility that inflation could turn out to be higher and more persistent than we expect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LI:  Which will force interest rates to go up, which, by the way, is a sign of a recovering economy. 

So, the Central Bank now predicting 7 percent GDP growth this year. And, if that happens, that would be the fastest pace of growth since at least the early 1980s. Prices or inflation will spike to the highest rate since 2007. 

And unemployment should come down to 4.5 percent this year. And, as a result, there are now several members of the Federal Reserve predicting the first interest rate increase next year, 2022. The majority still think 2023 is more likely. But you can imagine Wall Street reacted negatively to this with a sell-off in major technology and consumer names.

And Fed chair Jay Powell again going out of his way to walk back some of those comments, saying that inflation, yes, has been higher than anticipated the past few months, but it's all just temporary, and the factors should reverse itself relatively soon, he says.

He also noted that they will give a lot of warning before ending the monthly $100 billion-plus in bond purchases, and that the jobs market -- this is important, Charles -- will be strong the summer heading into the fall. 

PAYNE:  All right, Susan, thank you so much. 

As Susan pointed out, folks, the market fell during this commentary. The Treasury yields -- and that's what you had to focus on -- they spiked big time, again, seeing that the Fed is going to have to maybe take away the punchbowl.

I want to get to read now from one of my favorite market watchers, Gary Kaltbaum, Kaltbaum Capital Management. He is also FOX contributor, business contributor.

Gary, you're no fan of the Federal Reserve. It feels like this is another instance, though, where there was so much doublespeak. To Susan's point, we're going to have a huge GDP this year, it's going to slow dramatically next year, inflation is temporary, but they may remove accommodation. 

Consequently, the stock market, just for a lot of folks, just kind of sold and headed for the hills. 

GARY KALTBAUM, FOX BUSINESS CONTRIBUTOR:  Well, look, today's one bad day. 

It can change tomorrow. 

But, look, the bigger issue is, Charles, you and I were talking about inflation months ago, because we see it in the real world. And I just don't understand how a Central Bank or the head of the Central Bank doesn't see the train coming down the tracks and now starts reporting to us what we have already known.

Everything, just about everything is going up in price. Corn is at a five- year high, soybean seven years, poultry all-time high. And that's just the beginning. We already know that lumber moved, skyrocket up. And even though it's come down a lot, it's still double from when the pandemic started. 

And the issue is, in times of inflation, central banks are supposed to tighten policy. Instead, they're talking about 2023. So, there is potentially, a potential that they are way behind the curve. 

PAYNE:  Right. 

KALTBAUM:  And if the bond market ever gets in trouble and we start seeing the 10-year spike 2 percent or higher, that's going to be the market forcing his hand. And that's the worst of all worlds. 

And the last thing I got to say, he does not take any blame for the inflation, even though he has printed trillions and trillions of dollars. 

And, really, the definition, economics 101, too much money chasing too few goods sows the seeds, but he doesn't take any blame for that. Quite amazing. 

PAYNE:  Thirty seconds, though.

I want to get back to what you said originally. Listen, I know probably someone gets the steak for Jerome Powell. He may not go to the supermarket as often as he used to. But he's got to know these numbers. Why do you think the Fed is wedded to such a policy that is causing so much harm to the average American? 

KALTBAUM:  Well, all I can tell you, since Christmas of 2018, every time markets, the stock market got in trouble, the head of the Central Bank, Jay Powell, went with easier money, lowering rates or printing money. 

Remember, he started printing money before the pandemic. So I really do believe he follows the markets a lot more closely than the economy, because there's something called the wealth effect.

PAYNE:  Right. 

KALTBAUM:  Since Bernanke, we have built up on the markets the wealth effect that's really driven economic growth. If we lose that, that is one big linchpin that goes away. 

So I think, he's really, really targeting something like that. And that's why we're talking 2023 before raising any rates, which, unfortunately, for the average investor, gets--

PAYNE:  Yes. 

KALTBAUM:  -- zero percent on their money markets. And that's a shame also, my friend.

PAYNE:  It certainly is.

Gary Kaltbaum, thank you very much. 

Meanwhile, folks, the Russian navy reportedly conducting military drills near Hawaii, right before this summit. So why wasn't this mentioned today? 

We're going to ask a former Navy SEAL commander what he thinks about that.

Also, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott detailing plans this hour to build a border wall between his state and Mexico. We will bring you the very latest. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

PAYNE:  A report of Russian military drills that ran close to Hawaii this week and never came up today at this high-stakes summit. 

With me now, retired Navy SEAL commander David Sears.

Dave Sears, Commander, I guess we should have brought it up, because obviously Vladimir Putin wouldn't -- would not happen. It was so close to Hawaii that they actually had to scramble fighter jets, right?

DAVE SEARS, FORMER U.S. NAVY SEAL COMMANDER:  Yes, that's as I understood it, too. 

I understand that they didn't actually have to engage with the Russians or escort them anywhere. They still stayed outside of 300 to 500 miles, somewhere in there. 

But, still, it's obviously right before this summit. It's obviously a test. 

And President Biden failed. 

PAYNE:  Yes, and on top of that, in April, there was a even a massive test,

10,000 soldiers, Russian soldiers, 40 warships in Crimea, just sort of this threat, this never-ending threat against Ukraine, who desperately keeps seeking our help.

Or -- and it just -- it feels like all of these bad actors are being emboldened. And we keep waking up to these sorts of stories. What do you make of that? 

SEARS:  They are. They're going to continue to push. 

So, regardless of the administration, as a new administration comes in, these bad actors going to push around the world. And this is President Putin's -- this is how he does things. So you're going to see him, I think, continue to push in through South America and Venezuela and Nicaragua.

He's going to continue to push in Europe and the Baltics and Ukraine. 

Remember, the last time, under this president's watch, the Russians invaded Ukraine. So, he -- the Russians also see -- existentially, they see in their national security documents, NATO is a national security threat to them. 

So they're positioning themselves to make sure that they can counter that threat. And they're going to keep pushing, keep trying to fracture any alliances in Europe and the U.S. and pieces like that. And they're succeeding so far. 

PAYNE:  Commander, a lot of folks believe the next major engagement, confrontation will be in cyberspace. And it's just -- I just want your thoughts on some of the things that President Biden had to say today with respect to giving Vladimir Putin a list of things that maybe he shouldn't -

- they shouldn't have any ransomware against, and also sort of what I thought was a naive answer about Vladimir Putin being concerned about his image with the rest of the world. 

SEARS:  Yes, I mean, Putin is going to continue on the old mantra of admitting nothing, deny everything and make counteraccusations. 

So President Biden giving him a list of do this, don't do that, there's no way he's going to follow it. This is a guy who prides himself on -- President Putin -- on wrestling bears, riding tigers, lassoing the moon.

I mean, he's got this image that's bigger than now. And he wants that. And President Biden helped perpetuate some of that today. It was bad. 

PAYNE:  There was one reporter who actually did ask about the ransomware and brought up the use of military. President Biden hesitated for about 20,

30 seconds, put on his sunglasses, and went on to the next question. 

Listen, I can understand maybe he wouldn't want to speak about something like that, a certain -- that kind of reaction. But what kind of reaction should -- and maybe we should also assume maybe we are doing things. But it feels like these cyberattacks, these ransomware attacks are not going to stop. They keep getting worse. And they are going after key targets, food supply, oil supply.

Those are the things that can cripple a nation. What should we be doing to push back? 

SEARS:  So, there's lots of things that we can do. So there's things in the covert realm that can be done, but there's also things are going to become visible as well. 

So we see the visible effects of the assaults on the Colonial Pipeline, the assaults on JBS Foods. Those become visible to us, regardless of who did them. We can do the same things. We should not be saying -- when President Putin says hey, take your destroyers out of the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov, we turn them around at his request. 

Instead, we should be sending ships there. We should be showing our cyber capabilities. You need to demonstrate quid pro quo with these guys, exactly what you're going to do.

So, if they run an exercise there, we should be running an exercise off of Alaska right across from Russia. I mean, you need to demonstrate strength. 

They can sniff out weakness and they will crush you. 

PAYNE:  Commander Sears, thank you very much. Always appreciate it. 

SEARS:  Thanks, Charles.

PAYNE:  So, a border wall for Texas after all? Governor Greg Abbott detailing his plans for it. We will ask Texas Republican Congressman Kevin Brady what he makes of it.

And forget about putting pressure on Russia. White House critics want to know, where's the pressure on China when it comes to the origins of COVID- 19?

We have got Dr. Marty Makary with us. He will have some answers. He's coming up. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAYNE:  As President Biden heads home, critics asking, where's the pressure on China when it comes to the origins of COVID-19?

Dr. Marty Makary would like some answers. He's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): We know that temporary barriers and fences won't be enough to slow the flow of the record amount of illegal immigration that's taking place. 

That's why, today, we are announcing that Texas will build a border wall in our state to help secure our border. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAYNE:  Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott just moments ago detailing his border wall plans. 

FOX News' own Bill Melugin is in La Joya, Texas, with more on the announcement -- Bill. 

BILL MELUGIN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Yes, good afternoon to you.

That press conference from Governor Abbott going on right now, but, as you just heard just a short time ago, making the announcement official. Texas will begin building its own border wall, in lieu of the fact that he says the federal government is failing at its job to secure the border and that the Biden administration stopped all construction of the border wall that the Trump administration started building. 

So how are they going to do this? He hinted at it, said they have already started talking to some private property owners all throughout the area to see if they could get the green light to start building some barriers on their property. 

He said the state believes they have identified hundreds of miles of land, both state land and private property, where they can begin building hundreds of miles of this border wall. 

He also said the state legislature has had to budget up to a billion dollars for border security. He says that is not fair to Texas taxpayers that they're having to pay for a job that the federal government is supposed to be doing. 

So, we talk about all the activity down here. We have witnessed a lot of it. Take a look at this video that we shot from here in La Joya this morning. As soon as we got on scene this morning, we had a wave of migrants coming across the border. 

And this is something that happens every single -- every single morning out here in La Joya. This was a large group of women and children for the most part, about 50 in total, walking across the border, and then giving themselves up to Border Patrol. 

Most of the folks that I was able to talk with said they were from Guatemala and El Salvador, but these are those family units. These are not the runners that we see elsewhere on the border. 

Take a look at what we witnessed here in the same spot yesterday. This is when we were getting ready to do a live shot. A large group of migrants just came randomly out of the bushes behind us as we were setting up. There were no Border Patrol agents around. They're stretched so thin in this sector out here that those migrants ended up just sitting down and actually waiting to be apprehended. 

Some of them seemed to really be struggling in that brutal Texas heat out here. Had a chance to talk to some of those migrants. They told me they were all from Ecuador. I asked them, did any of you guys hear V.P. Kamala Harris' message to not come here to the border? All the adults I spoke with shook their head and said, no, we did not hear that message. 

Also here in La Joya yesterday, take a look at this video our drone crew shot. These are some of those runners we're talking about. These are the people who don't want to be caught. Typically, what we see is those family units come across, Border Patrol resources getting busy processing them, and then these runners will make a run for it. 

They do not want to be caught. Border Patrol -- Border Patrol using their helicopter to get deep into the brush, apprehend them. Typically, they're from those Northern Triangle countries, knowing they're going to get sent back if they get caught. That's why they want to get away.

And back out here live, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just making an announcement within the last hour or so that he is going to send Florida law enforcement to the states of Arizona and Texas to help them with border security. 

So we got two big announcements from governors today, Abbott saying he's going to construct a border wall here in Texas, ignoring the federal government, Texas is going to do it itself, and then Florida Governor Ron DeSantis saying he's going to answer the call for help from Texas, from Arizona, and he's going to send Florida law enforcement to both those states to supplement their border security.

We will send it back to you. 

PAYNE:  Two major developments. 

Bill, thank you very much. 

Now I want to get the read on all of this from Texas Republican Congressman Kevin Brady. 

Congressman, both governors, a big move. Let's start with the wall first, and just your thoughts on that? 

REP. KEVIN BRADY (R-TX): Yes, so, first, I applaud Governor Abbott. 

It is a stunning indictment of President Biden's failure to address or even acknowledge this border crisis. I have been to the border many times. I have never seen anything like it. And when you talk to the communities, the neighborhoods, the border agents, families, you can see it is a true crisis. 

And there's -- and there's no abating of this right now, because the president has basically said, look, it's open borders. And what we're seeing, obviously, sex trafficking is up. Violent crime is up. But the amount of fentanyl that simply just kills Americans is up in dramatic numbers as well.

So, I think the bottom line is, Governor Abbott is doing what President Biden won't, which is to protect Texas neighborhoods and communities. 

PAYNE:  And, of course, Governor Ron DeSantis stepping up, in fact, with additional enforcement--

BRADY:  Yes. 

PAYNE:  -- and echoing what -- so many things you said, that this spike in criminal activity, drug trafficking, human trafficking, he called it a disaster and an emergency.

And I think everyone agrees, and which is really frustrating when the federal government is not acting as if it is. 

BRADY:  Yes.

And, one, I applaud that move, too, because I know, when Texas -- when Governor Abbott and the legislature has approved money for our Texas law enforcement to help, it has real results. So we welcome Florida -- Florida's assistance there as well. 

Look, Washington needs to be paying for this. It is really -- it's just sad that states have to protect themselves when Washington and principally President Biden simply won't do it. 

PAYNE:  Yes. 

I want to switch gears now, if I can, Representative Brady. 

And Chuck Schumer is ready to get a reconciliation package together, budget together. And I guess this means bipartisanship is out the window, even with this infrastructure deal. What do you make of this? Is it a part of the -- is it part of the negotiation play? Do you think they really are ready to go through with this reconciliation, even though the American public is loudly against it? 

BRADY:  Yes, Democrats don't have the votes to pass this infrastructure tax increase bill in reconciliation themselves. 

The truth is that more and more of the so-called moderate pro-business Democrats, as they call themselves back home, realize that, if they vote for these tax increases, the greatest tax increases on Main Street businesses, farmers and workers in a generation, they know they're not coming back to Congress. 

And so Speaker Pelosi does not have the votes. I think the reconciliation is an empty threat. We need to do this in a bipartisan way that doesn't fund infrastructure on the backs of working families. 

PAYNE:  In the meantime, you have been to the border often.

And now, apparently, former President Trump is set to make his trip down there June 30.

BRADY:  Yes. 

PAYNE:  What should he be bracing for? 

BRADY:  Yes, so, it's going to be different from the last time he's been there, just the sheer amount of crossing, sixfold, sixfold what it was in May of last year, when he was president, when he sees all these children crammed together like chickens in the coop, when he knows that -- sees that four out of every 10 border agents aren't on the border protecting our safety. 

I think he's going to be stunned. And I know, when I was there, it was so disheartening to see how cruel really the Biden administration has been here with the border issues and these children. 

PAYNE:  It certainly is heartbreaking. 

Representative Brady, always appreciate you and our conversations. We will talk again real soon.

BRADY:  Thanks, Charles.

PAYNE:  So, President Biden on his way home from these international summits. Critics asking, where's the pressure on China over COVID-19's origins? 

We have got Dr. Marty Makary coming up on that.

Also, banning employees from making workers get the vaccine. Lawmakers in one state may be closer to making this happen. What does Andy McCarthy make of that? He's here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

PAYNE:  As Biden returns home from his international summits, critics are ripping the response from the president and other world leaders on looking into the origins of COVID-19. 

So, should there be more focus on putting pressure on China over the virus' 

origins? 

Johns Hopkins University professor of public health and FOX News medical contributor Dr. Marty Makary joins me now. 

Doctor, just your thoughts on what you saw from these world leaders. These communiques don't seem to have much teeth. 

DR. MARTY MAKARY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  That's right. There's zero teeth, Charles.

I worked with the WHO for a couple years as a collaborator. And what I found at that time was that the -- China calls the shots over there. They never have recognized Taiwan as a member country of the WHO, as if the country doesn't exist.

And it's incredibly bureaucratic, which leaves a lot of room for corruption. The WHO investigation of the Wuhan lab concluded that it was extremely unlikely that it was a lab source. And I think that tells you what kind of a sham investigation they had. 

And I don't think we need politicians right now posturing for a full investigation, because, basically, none of the samples over there or evidence is going to be turned over. 

PAYNE:  Well, President Biden did remark to one question today that the focus now should be in the future, preventing the next crisis, the next virus, the next pandemic.

Wouldn't it help to be in a position to do all those things if we really got the answers on how this one started? 

MAKARY:  Yes, it would, Charles. But I think we have the answer, based on all the circumstantial evidence.

Look, the other pieces of evidence that we really need to put the pieces of the puzzle together is the lab book. Every lab of the tens of thousands of labs in the world have a lab ledger, a book that keeps a record of all the experiments. That book has never been turned over.

Also, the samples, the samples that were studied and the samples that were used have never been turned over. And it's not for lack of asking. The NIH has been asking. The government's been asking. The WHO has been asking. And they have never turned over those samples. Those samples have been denatured and burned and the ashes flushed down the toilet, and probably the septic tank thrown in the ocean. 

So we're not going to get more information. 

PAYNE:  So, where do we go from here? How do we work -- with what you have been able to put together -- and everyone, I think, sort of agrees with what you're saying, and, anecdotally, the source was a lab, either a mistake, human error, whatever it was. How do we use that then to help prevent the next potential pandemic? 

MAKARY:  Well, first of all, the next potential pandemic is the -- is antimicrobial resistance. It's a pandemic that's setting in slowly. And we know what we need to do to address that. 

But in terms of a viral pandemic, we have had, just like you have in politics, Republicans and Democrats, in science, we have pro- and anti-gain of function research. 

Dr. Fauci has been out there on this lecture circuit talking about gain of function research and its value. Other scientists, including some at my own institution here at Johns Hopkins, have put out very strong statements that we should never be doing gain of function research for the -- because of the risk of a pandemic. 

That should be settled science now. Now we have the risk analysis that shows the danger of doing such a thing. So that needs to be settled. And, certainly, the NIH shouldn't be funding it. 

PAYNE:  Absolutely. Amen to all of that. 

Dr. Makary, thank you so much. Really, really great insight there. 

MAKARY:  Thank you, Charles.

PAYNE:  Well, folks, several companies are trying to make shots mandatory. 

Some lawmakers in one state are trying to stop them from doing it. 

Andy McCarthy on which side has it right. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAYNE:  The first shots fired in a major battle on companies requiring shots for their workers.

A Pennsylvania House panel advancing a GOP bill that would ban employer vaccine mandates. Democrats there saying there's no chance the bill will get go through, that they think it will get thrown out in court. So who's got it right?

I want to get the read from former assistant U.S. attorney Andy McCarthy. 

He joins us now by phone. 

Andy, your thoughts on this one? 

ANDY MCCARTHY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR:  Charles, I'm kind of a strict libertarian on this. I didn't like the government mandates that I thought were adhesive and overbearing, but I actually think that, if private employers want to have a mandate, then they should be allowed to have a mandate and the government shouldn't be sticking its nose in it. 

I think that people will act responsibly in their own interests. We have a

-- we got a bagel shop in my neighborhood that -- we don't have masks anymore as a mandate, but if you want to go into the bagel store, they have a sign on the front that says "We follow the CDC guidelines."

So you want to come in and buy a bagel, you have got to wear a mask. And everybody can vote with their feet. They either go in or they don't. So I kind of think adults sort of be left to their own devices to figure this stuff out. 

PAYNE:  I'm with you on that, except when the CDC now has changed their language, and even states like New Jersey have come around. 

I was in a place today that had the same sign, you must wear a mask. And when I got in, I did say, listen, I thought the state changed the laws. And the person I was talking to admitted, yes, they did. And I said, well, then can I remove my mask? They said OK.

And so some people kind of concerned about sort of -- this sort of now de facto you still must wear your mask, even though it's no longer mandated. 

And that could start to create some problems. I think it already has in certain isolated situations. We have seen flare-ups. We have seen individual fistfights and things like that. 

Where do you come down on that? 

MCCARTHY:  Well, I think that, if we came back a month from now, there'd be a lot less of that. 

I just think that, whenever you're making a big transition, now we're going from everybody -- for a while, it was from no mask to mask. Now it's from mask back to normal. And nothing changes on a dime in a big society. 

But I think that you obviously, in this interchange you had today, you had a good reasonable dialogue with someone and you worked it out. 

PAYNE:  Right. 

MCCARTHY:  And I think, over time, that's what will happen and we will be more back to normal in about a month or six weeks. 

PAYNE:  And I'm with you on businesses. They should be able to decide what they want to do. 

Always appreciate you, Andy. Thank you very much. 

MCCARTHY:  Thanks, Charles.

PAYNE:  Folks, I have got some breaking news. We just got it in, in fact.

The Justice Department has dropped this lawsuit against former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton, now, this coming after Bolton's book on his time in the Trump administration reportedly disclosed classified information. 

And after today's meeting, Putin says he didn't feel any pressure. So did President Biden make any progress?

We will be right back. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator):  We didn't experience any pressure, although there was a candid and an open conversation. And there were no personal or diplomatic deviations from the topics we have set out to address. 

BIDEN:  There are no threats, just simple assertions made. And no, well, if you do that, then we'll do this, wasn't anything I said. 

It was just letting him know where I stood, what I thought we could accomplish together, and what, in fact, if it was -- if there were violations of American sovereignty, what would we do. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAYNE:  Well, many are asking whether or not this summit was a success and how President Biden did in his final summit as he makes his way home.

Want to bring in Wall Street Journal editorial board member Kim Strassel, along with Democratic strategist Jason Nichols. 

So, Kim, how do you think President Biden did? 

KIM STRASSEL, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  Well, Charles,la basic political rule of thumb in these meetings, especially if you're going to sit down with a foreign adversary, is that it's a good idea to have a real purpose, right, to deliver a message or an ultimatum to get to some sort of agreement. 

And that, clearly, focus was not evident in this meeting. And you combine it with the Biden administration's refusal to take concrete actions on aggressions or issues like the Nord Stream pipeline, and I think you can tell Putin felt he came out of this with the upper hand, and I'm not quite sure the president left a strong impression. 

PAYNE:  Let me just cut down -- I'm going to get back to this topic. 

But I have got some breaking news on infrastructure coming in. A bipartisan group of 20 U.S. senators, 10 from each caucus, said they support the bipartisan framework for an infrastructure investment -- quote -- "We look forward to working with our Republican and Democratic colleagues to develop legislation based on this framework to address America's critical infrastructure challenges."

That was in a statement, Jason. This is one of those items that would seem like, if they don't get it done, pox on both houses. Your thoughts on this news? 

JASON NICHOLS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST:  Yes.

No, I think it's pretty important that they get this done for the American people. We have needed infrastructure since -- for a long time. And, certainly, it didn't get done in the last administration. So, I think Congress is feeling the pressure to get this actually done. 

We have bridges and roads that are collapsing. We need cybersecurity. And it's at least good news that some Republicans are actually willing to work with their Democratic colleagues to get some infrastructure done for the American people, instead of just being obstructionists, like Mitch McConnell. 

(LAUGHTER)

PAYNE:  Of course, Kim, I think they mean traditional infrastructure. 

Your quick thoughts on that? 

STRASSEL:  Yes, well, look, 20 is a lot more than 10. But it's still a long way from 60. 

And the big problem right now is that you have progressives already coming out in numbers saying they will never support bipartisan compromise, that they want to go it alone in a giant reconciliation bill. 

PAYNE:  Yes, and let's not forget now, there might be more Republicans in favor of this than progressives. 

Hey, let me get back to this original thing and just ask you, Jason. 

President Biden actually issued a an apology to Kaitlan -- Kaitlan Collins, right? If you recall the line, she said to him, why are you so confident with Vladimir Putin that he will change his behavior, Mr. President?

And that ruffled his feathers pretty much. He says: "I'm not confident he's going to change his behavior. What the hell? What do you do all the time? 

When did I say I was confident?"

Toward the end of that press conference, he seemed extraordinarily frustrated, flustered, and was the exact opposite of Vladimir Putin, who took on maybe 40 minutes' worth of extra questions. 

Do you read anything into that about maybe how this meeting went, the summit went? 

NICHOLS: Absolutely not. 

I read into that you and I, C.P., we both get frustrated when people take our words out of context or take -- put words in our mouths. And that's what Kaitlan Collins did. And I think she acknowledged later on that she was essentially at fault. She said the president did not owe me an apology.

She realized that she put words in his mouth. He never said anything like that. And I think we all get frustrated when something like that happens. 

PAYNE:  Yes. 

Kim, I have got 30 seconds here. Your thought on the infrastructure list, in other words, hey, essentially saying, you could hit anything else with ransomware, but these 16 things.

STRASSEL:  Yes, well, look, that was at least a good message, I mean, to put out to at least draw some lines, except for that that's always going to be changing and switching.

And it was a bit weird to list only 16, when there are many other vital aspects of the American economy that we don't want to hit with ransomware either.

PAYNE:  Yes. 

STRASSEL:  I think the message should have been no attacks ever. 

PAYNE:  Yes, that would have been a better one, I think. That covers it all. 

Thank you both very much, Kim, Jason. 

That's all we have for today. Catch me tomorrow 2:00 p.m. on "Making Money." That's on the FOX Business Network. It's going to be a big day in the market.

But it's still a big day here. 

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